Research Projects

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infections are an increasing global health threat and cause significant morbidity and mortality especially in immunocompromised and elderly patients. These bacteria cause a range of infections from lung and skin to disseminated forms, with increasing incidence and severity worldwide, and are difficult to treat due to inherent antibiotic resistance of many NTM species. The use of mycobacteriophage, viruses that infect and kill mycobacterial cells, may provide an alternative treatment option to patients with these infections. To provide this option, bacteriophage cocktails specific to each patient’s infection need to be produced from a bank of well characterised mycobacteriophage. However, few such mycobacteriophage collections exist and none are available within Australia. This project will involve the identification of lytic mycobacteriophage active against major NTM pathogens and the subsequent characterisation and development of these into therapeutic grade phage cocktails to use in conjunction with antibiotics to treat multidrug resistant, persistent NTM infections. Through this project, students will develop skills in bacteriology, virology, molecular biology and genomics as part of a bedside-bench-bedside platform to identify mycobacteriophage active against patient-specific NTM infections.

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